Bank of London
by CS Tracy
Summary: Slight AU in which Virgil goes to the Bank of London after Alan and Jeff. What will he find there? Rated K for moderate violence. Movie-verse.
1. At The Bank

**Hi, guys, it's me again I just want to thank you all for your kind words and support on my first story, '**_**Satellite Relay Station'**_**, especially Ro-Ro Weasely. It was amazing, so here's hoping you all like this one as much.**

**Just a bit more exploration around the movie, with a bit of an AU. I always found it slightly disappointing that none of the brothers disagreed with Jeff, or tried to go to the bank. Anyways, here's my version.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Thunderbirds, so kudos to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson there. If I did, there would definitely be another live-action movie, and Busted would definitely be doing the theme song (notice there's no 'Mc' there...)**

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All of the passengers were safe and sound from the monorail, with only some broken fingers and superficial cuts. Sprout and Tin-tin had certainly done an outstanding job. Scott and I helped the last of them off the boats and to the ambulances waiting. John and Gordon were still sorting out Two and Three.

"What do we do now?" I asked my oldest brother.

"Bank of London, I guess. Gords can handle looking after John for a few more minutes."

"John, _and_ the Thunderbirds?" I raised my eyebrows.

"You make an excellent point, little bro. You get to the bank. I'll go and make sure he's not putting whoopee cushions under all our seats, or something. His back's playing up anyway; I don't want either of them doing too much." Scott gave a quick wave and jogged off, leaving me to run to the bank. Weird how he actually let me out of his sight after today, but I guess he was so distracted that he completely forgot to be unreasonably overprotective.

Policemen were everywhere, milling up and down the marble steps and standing awkwardly around Thunderbird One. One held his hand out to me as I sprinted past, his accent so thick I had to strain to understand him. "'Scuse me, sir, but we 'ave word that there's a dangerous criminal inside."

"I understand that." _I'm actually trying not to rip your head – wait, the Hood's in there? _In that case, I was actually quite glad Scott didn't come. If he knew the man nearly responsible for killing all four of his brothers was within a hundred-mile radius, he'd kill him. "My fa-colleagues are inside too. They might require medical attention." Not that it mattered that I didn't have any medical equipment with me at that precise time.

"Ah, let 'im go, Bill." A second policeman stepped up, looking decidedly more superior, and appraised my flight suit, covered as it was in soot, dirt and just a little of John's blood. "'E's International Rescue, inn'e?"

Not waiting for a response, I began running again. A strange feeling was coiling itself up from my stomach. I knew that there was trouble waiting inside. I had to find my family.

Rounding a corner, I found Fermat and Parker keeping watch over a large, currently unconscious man dressed all in black. "Master Tracy!" Parker yelled as I ran past, but I ignored him. I was on the right track, but I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.

I slowed to a walk as I saw sparks erupting ahead of me, and the familiar yellow body of the Mole. They must be around here somewhere. I was just about to duck through the huge gap that had been torn in the wall when Dad's voice yelled, "_Alan!_ Get out, run."

"He's getting weaker!" my brother responded, sounding hoarse and breathless. "He can't last much longer."

"Neither can you!" Dad sounded pretty desperate. "Alan, no!"

I peeked around the wall to see Alan climbing up the Mole, grabbing hold of the sharp metal blades to pull himself towards the small man standing on the metal gantry just above him.

"Look out!"

The Hood raised his arms above his head and brought them down again, making the drill's head whirr into life and start to move. My brother looked down just in time to see what was happening, and grabbed onto the rickety metal walkway, right below the Hood.

"_ALAN!"_ Dad yelled.

"Sprout!" I shouted, jumping into the open. My eyes were fixed on my brother, but I couldn't miss the fact that Lady Penelope was locked in a vault with Dad, who looked like he was in in serious pain.

The Hood spun around with a pleasant smile, not looking at all shocked to see me there. "Ah, young Tracy mark three. I'm glad you could be here to see this, Jeff, Virgil."

I glared up at him. He'd nearly killed us all, and now he was trying to finish the job. Starting to run, I shouted, "Alan! Move, quick." My little brother started to wriggle along the bar he was clinging to, just out of reach of the shredding blades. Neither of us got too far.

The Hood thrust his hand out towards me and, before I knew what was happening, I was flying. I smashed into the wall and slid to the floor, dazed.

"Stop!" Dad begged, gripping the bars of the vault. I was frozen, unable to move as the small man turned back around and ground his leather soles across Alan's fingers. With a cry of pain, Alan let go with one hand.

"No!" I gasped. After everything we'd been through today, Alan couldn't die like this. It would kill Gordon, and destroy the rest of our family too. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn't obey me - it felt like they were being held in place by something.

"Goodbye, Alan," the Hood sang, moving onto his other hand.

The sound of running feet pulled my gaze away from my little brother. Tin-tin appeared from the same direction I'd come from, taking a second to survey the scene in front of her. _"NO!"_

The Hood glanced round, almost in irritation that he had to deal with any more of us. Seeing her, he smirked. "Oh-ho." His eyes turned red. Sure, we'd seen him cause Kyrano pain, but seeing it in real life was a completely different matter. It was totally freakish.

Tin-tin grasped her necklace with the pendant, glaring up at him as her eyes shifted from dark brown to liquid gold. The two stared at each other, fighting it out somewhere other than the physical world. It was only a few seconds, though it felt like hours, before a nut sparked and fell free of the gantry, spinning it a full 90 degrees. Somehow Alan was now on top, with the Hood hanging from the railings.

The hold on my body was broken as Tin-tin sagged next to me, clutching her head, and I clambered up in time to catch her and pull her to her feet again. The Hood whispered something to Alan, ripping one hand from the railing as he did. The man was going to plunge himself into the shredding metal machine, taunting my brother as he did.

Scott suddenly appeared next to me, out of nowhere, helping me support Tin-tin and glancing around wildly. "Virge, what – whoa, Tin-tin – how – Lady P – Dad – Alan!"

I looked away as the Hood cast himself from the railings. Whatever the man had done to us in the past six hours or so, it wasn't a sight I wanted to see. Scott gripped my arm so tight it was almost painful. "Look."

Frowning, I turned back to see my baby brother holding the Hood's arm as if his life depended on it, saying something as he did so. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dad nodding approvingly, smiling.

"Here." I helped Tin-tin sit against the wall before jogging after Scott to the gantry. Both him and Alan were already pulling the Hood to safety, balancing on the metal rails. The second he was clear, I pulled his arms behind him. "You will regret ever even _thinking_ about doing what you were about to do!" I hissed. "Scott, turn the Mole off, quick. Alan, get the bank officials and the security forces."

For once, my eldest brother actually did what I told him, as did my youngest. Again, not a common phenomenon. I escorted the madman from the walkway and handed him over to the police, along with his two accomplices. Then I jogged back with the bank manager's keys, only to find both Dad and Lady P free of the vault already. Scowling around the assembled faces, which only consisted of Alan and Tin-tin, I decided Alan looked pretty guilty. Gordon's lockpicking skills must be being passed down the family.

"Sprout," I said breathlessly. I hadn't had a proper talk with Alan since he'd come home for spring break, never mind since we'd landed in Three. "Sprout, you okay?"

"'Course I am, Doc. Quit worrying." Standard Alan response.

"Sorry!" I held up my hands in surrender. "Average team medic slash older brother default. But don't think I've forgotten who saved every single one of our sorry asses." That got him smiling again.

"Isn't that Scott's job, to be fussing around everyone? Where is Scott, by the way?"

"Him and Mr. Tracy are giving a statement to the police." Tin-tin offered. "Y'know, as Field Commander and Commander."

"C'mon," I said, shaking my head. "We should get home." Alan opened his mouth to speak. "And no, Sprout, you are not flying my bird again. I saw the landing trajectory and speed you pulled in One."

"That was an emergency," he protested.

"I don't care. I'm still flying. You're lucky the retros work as well as they do, or Thunderbird One could have become a permanent monument, embedded in Jubilee Gardens. There's no way I'm risking Two. She's been through enough today already."

"Whatever."

"Good to have our normal, moody, uncooperative Sprout back," I grinned. "Right, let's go. This everyone?"

"Yup. Fermat's already outside with Parker and Lady P. Just us three."

"FAB. Back to base, then."

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**Thanks for reading! What did you think? Let me know**

_**~*CST*~**_


	2. Going Home

**Hi, everyone!**

**Thank you for all your reviews, due to which this story is being continued. I hadn't planned on writing another chapter, so apologies ****for it being a little while since I last posted. (It took me ages ;))**

**Sorry for mild use of language, but it fit. Don't like it, don't read ;)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Thunderbirds, so kudos to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson there. If I did, there would definitely be another live-action movie, and Busted would definitely be doing the theme song (notice there's no 'Mc' there...)**

**Enjoy!**

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Getting home was interesting to say the least.

Gordon came racing around a corner and nearly collided with Tin-tin barely five seconds after we'd left the vault room. John came puffing after him, shooting me a quick apologetic glance. He knew I'd be after him later for not resting.

"Alan!" My immediate younger brother instantly jumped on the youngest blond. "What happened?"

"How does he know?" I muttered, stepping aside as Gordon proceeded to smother Alan quite as well as Scott often did.

"Something…weird, Virge. He couldn't breathe, and then it was like he was having a panic attack. Funny thing was, he insisted it wasn't him – I mean, I thought his back was playing up or something."

Tin-tin cocked her head to the side slightly. "That hasn't happened for years."

"Sorry, _has_ it happened before?" I asked, mystified. I knew Scott had an almost unearthly sense whenever something was wrong with me, but I just put it down to big brother instinct.

"The last time…" she continued. "God, it must have been the day of the crash."

John and I both winced. As a general rule, we don't talk about Gordon's accident.

"He told me how he woke up, in the middle of the night, and just knew something had happened. Then when Scott showed up to take him to the hospital…"

"Yeah," I agreed.

"They've just drifted apart since your Dad started the organization and sent Alan away," Tin-tin added, sending a pointed look my way. "You all have."

Alan assured Gordon he was fine for the millionth time and began to walk off, closely followed by the swimmer. I rolled my eyes, gesturing to Tin-tin. "Shall we?"

She grinned. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" That pulled me up short.

"Something big, yellow, made of metal…"

"Ah, hell," I moaned. "How on earth am I gonna get that out without bringing the bank down, or destroying the whole monorail network?"

"I'll help," John offered brightly.

"Oh. No. Nuh-uh," I refused flatly. "You are going to go back to Two and wait in the med bay, like you should be doing anyway."

"I'll come," Tin-tin sighed. "Hope you don't mind if I drip water on your seats."

"Why _are_ you so wet?" We'd only seen her emerge from our little sub with Alan. "Does Four have a leak?"

"I wish. I dove into the Thames to fix the line."

"Sorry, what?" John looked as lost as I was.

"You dove…" I repeated faintly. It's all well and good being the family medic, but it really doesn't help when members of said family try to kill themselves.

"Long story. Anyway, we'd better get going, right?"

Retrieving the Mole was eventful.

Scott moved One back to Jubilee Gardens to supervise the rest of the clean-up, as well as Alan circling Four around the Thames waiting for someone to pick him up. Gordon had accidentally left his mike switched on in Three, so at least we had his steady stream of curses, oaths and muttered swear words to keep us entertained.

To avoid any more damage to the bank, Tin-tin suggested we reverse it back through the tunnel it had already created, before realising, too late, that that would surely be the end of London's monorail network. Instead, we had to start going forwards again mid-journey and nearly severed one of Scott's wings when we emerged, creating a second large hole in Jubilee Gardens. Needless to say, both the council and my big brother were less than impressed.

Hovering Two just over the Thames so Four could slide up onto its pod section, it suddenly hit me just how close to death every single one of us had come.

Rubbing my hands up and down my face, I moaned pathetically. John could easily have died in the initial explosion, or if Fermat hadn't been able to hack into the computers, or if Tin-tin hadn't turned up when she did…

_"Virge?"_

"Huh?"

_"Pull me up, for God's sake! I'm just sitting here like an idiot."_

Tin-tin giggled, clearly enjoying the sight of Thunderbird Four being suspended from the bottom of Two like a baby bird.

"Sorry," I mumbled, retracting the pod section and pulling away from the water. Switching my comlink back onto an open channel, I heard two very familiar voices arguing.

_"No, Gordon, there is no way in hell you are flying Three with your back-!"_

_"And what about Dad's back? You can't tell me he's all fine and dandy when he's over there, walking like Quasimodo-"_

_"Someone else can fly."_

_"Who?"_

There was a moment of dead silence, during which Alan arrived in the cockpit from the cargo bay. Winking at him, I quickly ran through the possibilities in my mind before addressing my two brothers.

"Alan could fly One, Scott."

_"WHAT?!" _My earpiece just about flew across the cockpit. Alan winced. _"Have you _seen_ the post-flight data? Did you _see_ the stunt he pulled landing? Do you _think_ I'm about to _risk_-?"_

_"I think it's a great idea." _Gordon was clearly looking for some way to get back at Scott after effectively being grounded.

_"Boys?"_

Brilliant. Grinning, I gave Alan the thumbs-up. Dad was bound to veto Scott.

_"Dad, someone needs to fly Three and Virgil-"_

_"I heard."_

Alan doubled up in fits of silent chuckles. From somewhere on the ground, Tin-tin's bubbly laugh floated through my earpiece.

_"Great. So, you can fly Three, right?"_

_"I think Virgil's right, Scott."_

_"Sorry, what?"_

I snorted and tuned out again, jerking my head at Alan. "Think you'd best get down there, Sprout."

"Awesome!" His grin stretched even wider. "Thanks, Virge!"

"Anytime," I murmured. Anything to distract Scott from Fifty Different Ways to Kill the Hood.

The sounds of yells, protests, ranting and curses drifted up from below, and I winced when I realised I didn't need my comlink switched on to hear every word of Scott's tirade.

Eventually, we got several brothers settled, happy or unhappy, although Scott insisted that Dad accompany Alan, Tin-tin and Fermat to make sure they didn't crash his darling Thunderbird. Grumbling, he then proceeded to shoot me his best death glare and all but dragged John into Three. Gordon gave in with a good-natured snort and joined me in Two.

"That was fun."

"Glad you think so," I muttered, waving to Alan as One fired her thrusters and lifted off, Three shadowing her.

"That was sarcasm, Virge."

"As was that."

He smirked at me for a moment, before sitting forward. "You okay?"

"Perfectly." I glowered at my controls for a moment. "I mean, it's not like we just almost died or anything, is it?"

Gordon's a good listener when he has a mind. Unlike Scott or John, who both instantly jump on you and want to wrap you in cotton wool, Gordon and Alan just sit there and let you get it all out. One of the perks of being my permanent co-pilot, of course, is that you have to watch me lose it on occasion. Occasions like right then, for example.

"And it's not like our completely safe, secure, _secret_ base was taken over, apparently with no effort at all, or that we left Alan in danger while we all rushed off to be heroes and nearly got ourselves killed." I was getting more and more worked up, but I knew that if I didn't do it now, I'd do it later.

"And, no, I didn't have to sit up there in the dark and the heat, running out of air, just hoping at least one of us would make it out safe, even if the rest of us didn't. And I didn't have to watch Dad breaking down, or Scott freaking out, or you absolutely crapping your pants, because we all thought every single one of us was going to die. No, none of that happened, so there's no reason why I wouldn't be fine, is there?"

Gordon was silent for a minute, and I jerked Two up and away from Jubilee Gardens, setting a course back home. Twin blips appeared on my radar, and I realised that Scott and Alan had been waiting for me the whole time. The pair of them swooping underneath me and crossing paths, whooping as they did, got me smiling again, if only for a second.

"You're right," my brother said finally. "Sorry."

"Is this the same Gordon Tracy we all know and love?" I forced out through gritted teeth, fighting to rein my temper in. I don't get mad very much, but when I decide to, the results are often spectacular. Not the best idea when you're piloting the most uncooperative flying pig known to mankind. "Since when do you apologise for anything?"

"Since all of the above happened," he explained quietly. "I just kept thinking, if just one of us got out of that station – didn't have to be me – just so that Alan wasn't on his own…I'd have done anything."

"Mmm…" I agreed quietly, swinging south slightly to meet the island head-on.

"And when I called him a kid, I just…I didn't mean it, Virgil."

"I know you didn't," I told him. "Which is why he's never going to know, from me, anyway, and why we should all remember how much he's _not_ being a kid right now."

"Yeah, I guess."

"So, tell me…" I kept my eyes fixed on the controls, even though Two could pretty much perform a rescue on auto, never mind fly home. "What made you come to the bank?"

"And you?"

"You first."

"You'll think I'm crazy."

"I think today puts the monopoly on _crazy_, Gordo," I informed him. "I was thrown through the air and held against a wall by solid air. I saw a girl that I've know for the best part of four years unscrew a nut just by glaring at it. I have been reliably informed that my baby brother managed to pilot three of our birds without causing an international incident, and I think – I may not have been breathing properly at the time – but I think Brains _shouted_."

"Can't help you there, Virge," Gordon grinned, his strange mood finally lifting. "Brains shouting? Nah, I think that was the oxygen deprivation having it on with you."

He didn't say anything more, and I wasn't about to press him. He'd come clean in his own time, in his own way. Maybe he already had, to Alan, or possibly John.

We flew on in companionable silence until Brains' voice crackled over the radio. _"Approaching Tracy Island, Thunderbird Two, prepare to make runway landing. And…welcome back. It's good to see you."_

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**Thanks for reading!**

_**~*CSJ*~ **_


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